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Virginia Sixth District Republican Convention, Roanoke, VA, June 29, 1968
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Virginia Sixth District Republican Convention, Roanoke, VA, June 29, 1968
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This file contains material relating to Dick Poff.
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The original documents are located in Box D25, folder "Virginia Sixth District Republican
Convention, Roanoke, VA, June 29, 1968" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press
Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
VIRGINIA SIXTH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION,
AT 10 A.M. SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1968, AT
ROANOKE, VIRGINIA.
I CONSIDER IT A DISTINCT HONOR
AND A PRIVILEGE TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO
TALK WITH YOU THIS MORNING AT A TIME WHEN THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY HERE AND THROUGHOUT THE
COUNTRY IS GEARING UP FOR A MOST ARDUOUS
CAMPAIGN IN A MOST CRITICAL ELECTION YEAR.
I AM ESPECIALLY PLEASED TO BE HERE
AT THE INVITATION OF YOUR MOST ABLE AND
DISTINGUISHED CONGRESSMAN, DICK POFF.
THIS IS A TIME OF GREAT DECISION
FOR THIS NATION, FOR SOON THE VOTERS OF AMERICA
WILL BE TURNING THIS COUNTRY OVER TO NEW
LEADERSHIP. THE ELECTION OF 1968 COMES AT A
TIME OF CRISIS, A TIME WHEN STRONG LEADERSHIP
IS DESPERATELY NEEDED.
I CANNOT MENTION THE SUBJECT OF
ALD FORD LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D25 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
LEADERSHIP WITHOUT NOTING THE TREMENDOUS
CONTRIBUTION THAT YOUR CONGRESSMAN, DICK POFF,
HAS MADE IN THE NATIONAL LEADERSHIP COUNCILS
OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
AS YOU KNOW, DICK IS A MEMBER OF
THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. HE IS
SECRETARY OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE.
HE IS A MEMBER OF THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE
REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. HE IS A MEMBER OF THE
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE,
WHICH CURRENTLY SPEAKS FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
NATIONWIDE. AND, AT A TIME WHEN THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE SEE THE SKYROCKETING NATIONAL CRIME RATE
AS THE NATION'S NO. 1 PROBLEM, DICK POFF IS
CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN TASK FORCE ON
CRIME AND VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL
COMMISSION TO REFORM THE FEDERAL CRIMINAL
STATUTES.
IT IS BECAUSE WE HAVE MEN LIKE DICK
POFF IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
-3-
THAT OUR PARTY IS MOVING AHEAD AND HOPES TO BE
IN A POSITION TO MOVE THIS COUNTRY AHEAD COME
NEXT JANUARY.
OUR PARTY LEADERSHIP REPRESENTS A
TREMENDOUS INVESTMENT IN TERMS OF PEOPLE, TIME
AND TALENT. IT IS VITAL THAT YOU SEND DICK
POFF BACK TO US NEXT JANUARY. HE IS MAKING A
GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HIS
DISTRICT, HIS STATE AND HIS COUNTRY. HIS IS
THE KIND OF YOUNG BLOOD WE NEED TO REVITALIZE
THIS NATION AND TO UNIFY AND MAKE THE COUNTRY
WHOLE AGAIN.
TO ME DICK POFF TYPIFIES THE NEW
SOUTH -- THE SOUTH WHICH HAS CHANGED IN RECENT
YEARS MORE RAPIDLY THAN ANY OTHER SECTION OF
THE COUNTRY.
HE IS THE FORWARD-LOOKING SOUTH,
THE SOUTH THAT WANTS TO GROW AND PROGRESS AND
LIVE WITH THE REALITIES OF THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
AND SHUCK OFF THE BURDEN OF THE ONE-PARTY PAST.
IBRARY
-4-
I CALL UPON THE SOUTH TODAY TO RID
ITSELF OF MISPLACED ONE-PARTY LOYALTIES AND THE
MYTHOLOGY THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BEST SERVES
THE SOUTH.
ANY RATIONAL ANALYSIS REVEALS THAT
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HUBERT HUMPHREY IS A
STRANGE DWELLING PLACE FOR THOSE SONS OF THE
SOUTH WHO BELIEVE IN A GOVERNMENT OF LAWS AND
NOT OF MEN, A GOVERNMENT DEDICATED TO LIVING BY
THE CONSTITUTION AND NOT BENDING AND DISTORTING
IT AT THE EXPENSE OF SOCIETY AND IN FAVOR OF THE
CONVICTED CRIMINAL.
THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY THE
SOUTHERNER BELONGS IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
TODAY. LET ME CITE JUST A FEW.
THE SOUTHERNER BELIEVES IN GOOD,
SOUND LOCAL GOVERNMENT. THE SOUTHERNER BELIEVES
IN VIGOROUS, RESPONSIBLE STATE GOVERNMENT. THE
SOUTHERNER BELIEVES IN LAW AND ORDER, IN
PROGRESS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A LAWFUL
GERATO FORD THE
-5
SOCIETY, THE ONLY WAY AMERICA CAN ACHIEVE
MEANINGFUL PROGRESS.
NOW, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LAW AND
ORDER IN THIS COUNTRY IN THE LAST SEVEN YEARS?
YOU KNOW AND I KNOW THAT WE HAVE
WHAT CAN ONLY BE CALLED A LAW ENFORCEMENT CRISIS
IN OUR NATION TODAY.
OVER THE LAST SEVEN YEARS WE HAVE
SEEN A VIRTUAL BREAKDOWN IN LAW AND ORDER TAKE
PLACE IN THIS GREAT LAND OF OURS -- THE
DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERAL ATTITUDE OF LAWLESSNESS
WHICH HAS CONFOUNDED AND CONFUSED AND
FRIGHTENED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
I AM NOT GOING TO STAND HERE AND
SAY THE PROBLEM IS SIMPLE AND HERE IS HOW WE
SOLVE IT. BUT I WILL TELL YOU -- AND I BELIEVE
IT WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING -- THAT NEW
REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP WILL SOLVE IT.
HOW DID WE GET THIS WAY, ANYWAY?
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY? YOU HEAR
-6-
AMERICANS ASKING THOSE QUESTIONS ALL THE TIME.
I THINK THE ANSWERS ADD UP TO AN
INVITATION TO VIOLENCE ON THE PART OF THE
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION -- THE
FOSTERING OF AN ATMOSPHERE OF PERMISSIVENESS,
UNCALLED-FOR RESTRICTIONS ON THE INVESTIGATORY
POWERS OF THE POLICE, A TIPPING OF THE SCALES
OF JUSTICE AGAINST SOCIETY AND IN FAVOR OF THE
CRIMINAL, AND FAILURE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
TO MOUNT AN EFFECTIVE ATTACK AGAINST THE KINGS
OF ORGANIZED CRIME.
THESE AND OTHER FACTORS HAVE PUSHED
UP THE NATIONAL CRIME RATE BY 88 PER CENT SINCE
1960 -- NEARLY NINE TIMES FASTER THAN OUR
POPULATION HAS GROWN.
THE SHARPEST RISE IN CRIME HAS
OCCURRED IN OUR LARGE URBAN CENTERS -- AND I
DON'T THINK IT IS WITHOUT SIGNIFICANCE THAT MOST
OF THEM ARE RUN BY DEMOCRATIC PARTY BOSSES.
ORGANIZED CRIME, WHICH THE FEDERAL
-7-
GOVERNMENT HAS ALMOST SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR
FIGHTING, KEEPS ROLLING ON AS A MULTI-BILLION-
DOLLAR OPERATION WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL RAMSEY
CLARK ADMITS THAT "MORE OF THEIR GUYS ARE BEING
HURT IN AUTO ACCIDENTS THAN BY THE GOVERNMENT."
THIS IS THE SAME ATTORNEY GENERAL
WHO SAYS CRIME HAS GONE UP A LITTLE BIT IN THIS
COUNTRY BUT WE HAVE NO CRIME WAVE. HE SAYS
THIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT AT THE PRESENT RATE
OF INCREASE, MAJOR CRIME COULD DOUBLE IN THE
UNITED STATES IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. HE MADE
THAT STATEMENT DESPITE THE FACT THAT, ON THE
AVERAGE A MAJOR CRIME IS COMMITTED EVERY
10 SECONDS IN THIS COUNTRY -- ABOUT THE LENGTH
OF TIME IT TOOK ME TO SPEAK THIS SENTENCE.
THEN THERE IS MASS CRIME --
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS RIOTS.
DURING 1967 RIOTS BROKE OUT IN
29 STATES. EIGHTY-FOUR PEOPLE WERE KILLED, AND
TOTAL FINANCIAL LOSS WAS ESTIMATED AT NEARLY
-8-
$665 MILLION. THIS YEAR, DURING THE WEEK OF
APRIL 4 - 11, THE SLAYING OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER
KING JR. TOUCHED OFF RIOTS IN 125 CITIES IN
29 STATES AND THE NATION'S CAPITAL FOR A TOTAL
OF 39 DEATHS AND ESTIMATED PROPERTY DAMAGE OF
$67 MILLION. I DON'T HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT
RICHMOND AND SUFFOLK IN VIRGINIA WERE AMONG THE
125 CITIES HIT.
I FIRMLY BELIEVE THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY
ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN SOFT ON CRIME AND HAS
INVITED CIVIL DISORDER BY LETTING ARSONISTS AND
LOOTERS THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT AND BY
SANCTIONING CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AS A WEAPON OF
SOCIAL ACTION. THIS DESPITE THE FACT THAT
PUNISHMENT CLEARLY ACTS AS A DETERRENT TO CRIME
AND THAT EXPERIENCE POINTS TO A COMPLETE BREAK-
DOWN OF LAW AND ORDER WHEN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS
ENCOURAGED.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT
IT IS THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION'S
APPROACH TO LAW AND ORDER WHICH HAS CAUSED IT TO
DISINTEGRATE -- THE APPROACH THAT ENCOURAGES
-9-
THE NOTION THAT SOMETHING CAN BE HAD FOR
NOTHING AND THAT AN INDIVIDUAL IS NOT
RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS ACTIONS.
JUST AS THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY
ADMINISTRATION IS GUILTY OF IRRESPONSIBILITY IN
HANDLING THIS NATION'S FISCAL AFFAIRS, SO THE
ADMINISTRATION STANDS GUILTY OF ENCOURAGING
INDIVIDUAL IRRESPONSIBILITY IN AMERICA -- THE
IDEA THAT SOCIETY IS TO BLAME, NOT THE
LAW-BREAKER.
THE ADMINISTRATION WOULD HAVE THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT CRIME IS LARGELY
THE PRODUCT OF POVERTY. YET THERE WAS MUCH
LESS CRIME DURING THE DEPRESSION OF THE 1930's
THAN THERE IS NOW.
THIS IS THE SOFT LINE ON
CRIMINALS. THIS IS THE SOFT-HEADED ATTITUDE
WHICH PROMOTES CRIME INSTEAD OF STAMPING IT OUT.
WE ARE NOW MOVING AHEAD IN THE
FIGHT AGAINST CRIME -- NOT BECAUSE OF THE
-10-
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION BUT IN SPITE
OF IT.
WE ARE GOING TO MAKE REAL PROGRESS
AGAINST CRIME BECAUSE OF CRIME FIGHTERS LIKE
DICK POFF, BECAUSE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS
LEADING THIS FIGHT AND IS GOING INTO THE FRAY
WITH A RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT.
THE CONGRESS RECENTLY ENACTED A
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT.
THAT ACT GIVES THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
THE TOOLS TO FIGHT CRIME AT THE FEDERAL, STATE
AND LOCAL LEVELS -- TOOLS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
FOUGHT TO PLACE IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE
OVER THE PROTESTS OF THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY
ADMINISTRATION.
I AM TALKING ABOUT FEDERAL GRANTS
TO THE STATES TO CARRY OUT A COORDINATED WAR
AGAINST CRIME; REVERSAL OF SUPREME COURT RULINGS
ON CONFESSIONS IN CRIMINAL CASES; OUTLAWING OF
-11-
PRIVATE SNOOPING BUT LEGALIZING OF ELECTRONIC
SURVEILLANCE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS UNDER
COURT ORDER AND COURT SUPERVISION IN
INVESTIGATION OF MAJOR CRIMES AND ESPIONAGE;
GRANTING OF IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION OF
WITNESSES IN ORGANIZED CRIME CASES SO AS TO
GET AT "THE BIG BOYS;" CREATION OF A CRIMINAL
JUSTICE INSTITUTE TO PROVIDE MEANINGFUL RESEARCH
INTO THE CAUSES OF CRIME AND HOW BEST TO COMBAT
IT.
REPUBLICANS KNOW THAT FAIR AND
EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
DEMANDS A BALANCING OF THE RIGHTS OF SOCIETY
WITH THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. ANY SERIOUS
IMBALANCE CAN DESTROY LIBERTY AND ORDER.
REPUBLICANS KNOW THAT CRIME DOES
NOT STOP AT THE CITY LINE AND THAT THE STATES
MUST COME ON STRONG IF LAW ENFORCEMENT IS TO
WORK FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL OUR CITIZENS.
THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION
-12-
INSISTED THAT FEDERAL GRANTS TO ASSIST IN LOCAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT SHOULD GO DIRECTLY TO THE
CITIES -- A MOVE THAT WOULD HAVE OBSTRUCTED
STATEWIDE COORDINATION AND WOULD HAVE MADE CITY
POLICE DEPARTMENTS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY BEGGAR
BOYS IN WASHINGTON. IT WOULD, IN EFFECT, HAVE
CREATED THE DANGER OF A FEDERALIZATION OF LOCAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT.
LYNDON JOHNSON RECENTLY SIGNED THE
NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE AND CRIMINAL
JUSTICE ACT OF 1968 -- RELUCTANTLY. AT THE TIME
HE MADE A MOST SHOCKING STATEMENT. HE SAID
THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT USE
THE WIRETAPPING AUTHORITY GRANTED IT BY THE
CONGRESS AS A WEAPON AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME,
THE MAFIA THAT PREYS UPON SOCIETY.
THE CONGRESS, IN EFFECT, SAID WE
WANT YOU TO GO AFTER THE MAFIA AND HERE'S A
VALUABLE TOOL TO HELP YOU. BUT THE JOHNSON-
LIBRARY
HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION SAYS "NO," ALTHOUGH
-13-
THE PRESIDENT'S OWN CRIME COMMISSION ENDORSED
WIRETAPPING FOR USE AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME.
A FRIEND OF MINE SAYS THIS AMOUNTS TO GIVING
AID AND COMFORT TO THE CRIME SYNDICATES.
WHETHER IT IS ORGANIZED CRIME OR
INDIVIDUAL CRIME OR THE MASS CRIME CALLED RIOTS,
THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION HAS FAILED
TO ACT WITH THE URGENCY AND THE FIRMNESS NEEDED
TO COPE WITH IT.
UNDER THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION,
THE NATION'S CAPITAL HAS BECOME A JUNGLE, A
CITY WHERE SMALL BUSINESSMEN ARE AFRAID TO
OPERATE, A CITY TERRORIZED BY HOODLUMS AND
ARMED HOOLIGANS, A CITY OF FEAR WHERE MOB RULE
IS FENDED OFF WITH TEAR GAS, A GARRISON CITY
WITH NATIONAL GUARDSMEN AND FEDERAL TROOPS
CONSTANTLY POISED TO QUELL CIVIL DISORDER. THE
COMMUNITY WHICH SHOULD BE A MODEL FOR THE
NATION HAS BECOME A CITY UNDER SIEGE DURING
THE JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION.
-14-
SUDDENLY HUBERT HUMPHREY HAS BECOME
A STERLING ADVOCATE OF LAW AND ORDER. BUT NO
AMOUNT OF FRESH WORDS FROM THAT VOLUBLE
INDIVIDUAL WILL EVER ERASE HIS INVITATION TO
CIVIL DISORDER, ISSUED WHEN HE TOLD THE NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES IN SEPTEMBER 1966 THAT
IF HE HAD TO LIVE UNDER SLUM CONDITIONS HE
COULD "LEAD A MIGHTY GOOD REVOLT," HIMSELF.
THE FACT THAT HE DEPLORED VIOLENCE IN THE SAME
SPEECH DID NOT TAKE THE CURSE OFF THE TICKET TO
TROUBLE HE HAD HANDED OUT EARLIER.
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE
JOHNSON-HUMPHREY ADMINISTRATION INVITED THE
MOB TERROR WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING IN THIS
COUNTRY. I SAY THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR SLUMS
BUT NEITHER IS THERE ANY EXCUSE FOR RIOTS.
LAW-ABIDING AMERICANS -- PEOPLE WHO
RESPECT THE LAW AND BELIEVE CHANGE SHOULD COME
THROUGH PEACEFUL MEANS -- ARE WONDERING WHAT
IS HAPPENING AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HALT THE
-15-
DESTRUCTION AND DISORDER.
THE ANSWER IS NEW NATIONAL
LEADERSHIP -- REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. AND I
CAN TELL YOU THAT AMERICANS WHO GO CHARGING OFF
INTO THE BALLOT-BOONDOCKS WITH GEORGE WALLACE
WON'T BE HELPING THEMSELVES OR ANYONE ELSE.
THEY' LL BE THROWING THEIR VOTE AWAY AND
ENDANGERING THE CHANCE FOR A REALLY MEANINGFUL
CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP IN THIS COUNTRY.
I BELIEVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE
GOING TO VOTE FOR MEANINGFUL CHANGE IN NOVEMBER,
FOR REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP, FOR NEW DIRECTION
FOR THIS NATION. THEY ARE GOING TO INSIST ON
LAW AND ORDER. THEY ARE GOING TO SEEK PROGRESS
WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A LAWFUL SOCIETY. THEY
ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR A SOUND AMERICA, A BETTER
AMERICA, AN AMERICA OF WHICH WE CAN ALL BE
PROUD. THANK YOU.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
END : :
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
AT THE VIRGINIA SIXTH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
ROANOKE, VIRGINIA
10 a.m. Saturday, June 29, 1968
I consider it a distinct honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to
talk with you this morning at a time when the Republican Party here and throughout
the country is gearing up for a most arduous campaign in a most critical election
year.
I am especially pleased to be here at the invitation of your most able and
distinguished congressman, Dick Poff.
This is a time of great decision for this Nation, for soon the voters of
America will be turning this country over to new leadership. The election of 1968
comes at a time of crisis, a time when strong leadership is desperately needed.
I cannot mention the subject of leadership without noting the tremendous
contribution that your congressman, Dick Poff, has made in the national leadership
councils of the Republican Party.
As you know, Dick is a member of the House Republican Leadership. He is
secretary of the House Republican Conference. He is a member of the Joint House
and Senate Republican Leadership. He is a member of the Republican National
Coordinating Committee, which currently speaks for the Republican Party nationwide.
And, at a time when the American people see the skyrocketing national crime rate as
the Nation's No. 1 problem, Dick Poff is chairman of the House Republican Task
Force on Crime and vice-chairman of the National Commission to Reform the Federal
Criminal Statutes.
It is because we have men like Dick Poff in the leadership of the Republican
Party that our party is moving ahead and hopes to be in a position to move this
country ahead come next January.
Our party leadership represents a tremendous investment in terms of people,
time and talent. It is vital that you send Dick Poff back to us next January. He
is making a great contribution to the advancement of his district, his state and
his country. His is the kind of young blood we need to revitalize this Nation and
to unify and make the country whole again.
To me Dick Poff typifies the New South--the South which has changed in recent
years more rapidly than any other section of the country.
He is the forward-looking South, the South that wants to grow and progress
(more)
-2-
and live with the realities of the two-party system and shuck off the burden of the
one-party past.
I call upon the South today to rid itself of misplaced one-party loyalties
and the mythology that the Democratic Party best serves the South.
Any rational analysis reveals that the Democratic Party of Hubert Humphrey is
a strange dwelling place for those sons of the South who believe in a government of
laws and not of men, a government dedicated to living by the Constitution and not
bending and distorting it at the expense of society and in favor of the convicted
criminal.
There are many reasons why the Southerner belongs in the Republican Party
today. Let me cite just a few.
The Southerner believes in good, sound local government. The Southerner
believes in vigorous, responsible state government. The Southerner believes in law
and order, in progress within the framework of a lawful society, the only way
America can achieve meaningful progress.
Now, what has happened to law and order in this country in the last seven
years?
You know and I know that we have what can only be called a law enforcement
crisis in our Nation today.
Over the last seven years we have seen a virtual breakdown in law and order
take place in this great land of ours--the development of a general attitude of
lawlessness which has confounded and confused and frightened the American people.
I am not going to stand here and say the problem is simple and here is how
we solve it. But I will tell you--and I believe it with every fiber of my being--
that new Republican Leadership will solve it.
How did we get this way, anyway? What has happened to this country? You
hear Americans asking those questions all the time.
I think the answers add up to an invitation to violence on the part of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration--the fostering of an atmosphere of permissiveness,
uncalled-for restrictions on the investigatory powers of the police, a tipping of
the scales of justice against society and in favor of the criminal, and failure of
the Federal Government to mount an effective attack against the kings of organized
crime.
These and other factors have pushed up the national crime rate by 88 per cent
since 1960--nearly nine times faster than our population has grown.
The sharpest rise in crime has occurred in our large urban centers--and I
don't think it is without significance that most of them are run by Democratic
Party bosses.
(more)
-3-
Organized crime, which the Federal Government has almost sole responsibility
for fighting, keeps rolling on as a multi-billion-dollar operation while Attorney
General Ramsey Clark admits that "more of their guys are being hurt in auto
accidents than by the government."
This is the same attorney general who says crime has gone up a little bit in
this country but we have no crime wave. He says this despite the fact that at the
present rate of increase, major crime could double in the United States in the next
five years. He made that statement despite the fact that, on the average, a major
crime is committed every 10 seconds in this country -- about the length of time it
took me to speak this sentence.
Then there is mass crime--otherwise known as riots.
During 1967 riots broke out in 29 states. Eighty-four people were killed,
and total financial loss was estimated at nearly $665 million. This year, during
the week of April 4-11, the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. touched off riots
in 125 cities in 29 states and the Nation's capital for a total of 39 deaths and
estimated property damage of $67 million. I don't have to tell you that Richmond
and Suffolk in Virginia were among the 125 cities hit.
I firmly believe the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has been soft on crime
and has invited civil disorder by letting arsonists and looters think they can get
away with it and by sanctioning civil disobedience as a weapon of social action.
This despite the fact that punishment clearly acts as a deterrent to crime and that
experience points to a complete breakdown of law and order when civil disobedience
is encouraged.
The American people are aware that it is the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's
approach to law and order which has caused it to disintegrate--the approach that
encourages the notion that something can be had for nothing and that an individual
is not responsible for his actions.
Just as the Johnson-Humphrey Administration is guilty of irresponsibility in
handling this Nation's fiscal affairs, so the Administration stands guilty of
encouraging individual irresponsibility in America--the idea that society is to
blame, not the law-breaker.
The Administration would have the American people believe that crime is
largely the product of poverty. Yet there was much less crime during the Depression
of the 1930's than there is now.
This is the soft line on criminals. This is the soft-headed attitude which
promotes crime instead of stamping it out.
We are now moving ahead in the fight against crime--not because of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration but in spite of it.
(more)
-4-
We are going to make real progress against crime because of crime fighters
like Dick Poff, because the Republican Party is leading this fight and is going into
the fray with a record of achievement.
The Congress recently enacted a National Law Enforcement Assistance and
Criminal Justice Act.
That Act gives the American people the tools to fight crime at the federal,
state and local levels--tools the Republican Party fought to place in the hands of
the people over the protests of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
I am talking about federal grants to the states to carry out a coordinated
war against crime; reversal of Supreme Court rulings on confessions in criminal
cases; outlawing of private snooping but legalizing of electronic surveillance by
law enforcement officials under court order and court supervision in investigation
of major crimes and espionage; granting of immunity from prosecution to witnesses
in organized crime cases so as to get at "the big boys;" creation of a Criminal
Justice Institute to provide meaningful research into the causes of crime and how
best to combat it.
Republicans know that fair and effective administration of criminal justice
demands a balancing of the rights of society with those of the individual. Any
serious imbalance can destroy liberty and order.
Republicans know that crime does not stop at the city line and that the states
must come on strong if law enforcement is to work for the benefit of all our citizens.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration insisted that federal grants to assist
in local law enforcement should go directly to the cities--a move that would have
obstructed statewide coordination and would have made city police departments all
over the country beggar boys in Washington. It would, in effect, have created the
danger of a federalization of local law enforcement.
Lyndon Johnson recently signed the National Law Enforcement Assistance and
Criminal Justice Act of 1968--reluctantly. At the time he made a most shocking
statement. He said the Johnson-Humphrey Administration will not use the wiretapping
authority granted it by the Congress as a weapon against organized crime, the
Mafia that preys upon society.
The Congress, in effect, said we want you to go after the Mafia and here's
a valuable tool to help you. But the Johnson-Humphrey Administration says "no,"
although the President's own Crime Commission endorsed wiretapping for use against
organized crime. A friend of mine says this amounts to giving aid and comfort to
the crime syndicates.
Whether it is organized crime or individual crime or the mass crime called
(more)
-5-
riots, the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has failed to act with the urgency and
the firmness needed to cope with it.
Under the present Administration, the Nation's capital has become a jungle,
a city where small businessmen are afraid to operate, a city terrorized by hoodlums
and armed hooligans, a city of fear where mob rule is fended off with tear gas, a
garrison city with national guardsmen and federal troops constantly poised to quell
civil disorder. The community which should be a model for the Nation has become a
city under siege during the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
Suddenly Hubert Humphrey has become a sterling advocate of law and order.
But no amount of fresh words from that voluble individual will ever erase his
invitation to civil disorder, issued when he told the National Association of
Counties in September 1966 that if he had to live under slum conditions he could
"lead a mighty good revolt," himself. The fact that he deplored violence in the
same speech did not take the curse off the ticket to trouble he had handed out
earlier.
This is an example of how the Johnson-Humphrey Administration invited the
mob terror we have been experiencing in this country. I say there is no excuse for
slums but neither is there any excuse for riots.
Law-abiding Americans--people who respect the law and believe change should
come through peaceful means--are wondering what is happening and what can be done to
halt the destruction and disorder.
The answer is new national leadership--Republican leadership. And I can
tell you that Americans who go charging off into the ballot-boondocks with George
Wallace won't be helping themselves or anyone else. They'11 be throwing their vote
away and endangering the chance for a really meaningful change in leadership in
this country.
I believe the American people are going to vote for meaningful change in
November, for Republican leadership, for New Direction for this Nation. They are
going to insist on law and order. They are going to seek progress within the
framework of a lawful society. They are going to vote for a sound America, a
better America, an America of which we can all be proud. Thank you.
###
Distribution: 20 Copies Mr. Ford
mailing 7/1/68
M Office Copy
AN ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
AT THE VIRGINIA SIXTH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
ROANOKE, VIRGINIA
10 a.m. Saturday, June 29, 1968
I consider it a distinct honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to
talk with you this morning at a time when the Republican Party here and throughout
the country is gearing up for a most arduous campaign in a most critical election
year.
I am especially pleased to be here at the invitation of your most able and
distinguished congressman, Dick Poff.
This is a time of great decision for this Nation, for soon the voters of
America will be turning this country over to new leadership. The election of 1968
comes at a time of crisis, a time when strong leadership is desperately needed.
I cannot mention the subject of leadership without noting the tremendous
contribution that your congressman, Dick Poff, has made in the national leadership
councils of the Republican Party.
As you know, Dick is a member of the House Republican Leadership. He is
secretary of the House Republican Conference. He is a member of the Joint House
and Senate Republican Leadership. He is a member of the Republican National
Coordinating Committee, which currently speaks for the Republican Party nationwide.
And, at a time when the American people see the skyrocketing national crime rate as
the Nation's No. 1 problem, Dick Poff is chairman of the House Republican Task
Force on Crime and vice-chairman of the National Commission to Reform the Federal
Criminal Statutes.
It is because we have men like Dick Poff in the leadership of the Republican
Party that our party is moving ahead and hopes to be in a position to move this
country ahead come next January.
Our party leadership represents a tremendous investment in terms of people,
time and talent. It is vital that you send Dick Poff back to us next January. He
is making a great contribution to the advancement of his district, his state and
his country. His is the kind of young blood we need to revitalize this Nation and
to unify and make the country whole again.
To me Dick Poff typifies the New South--the South which has changed in recent
years more rapidly than any other section of the country.
He is the forward-looking South, the South that wants to grow and progress
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and live with the realities of the two-party system and shuck off the burden of the
one-party past.
I call upon the South today to rid itself of misplaced one-party loyalties
and the mythology that the Democratic Party best serves the South.
Any rational analysis reveals that the Democratic Party of Hubert Humphrey is
a strange dwelling place for those sons of the South who believe in a government of
laws and not of men, a government dedicated to living by the Constitution and not
bending and distorting it at the expense of society and in favor of the convicted
criminal.
There are many reasons why the Southerner belongs in the Republican Party
today. Let me cite just a few.
The Southerner believes in good, sound local government. The Southerner
believes in vigorous, responsible state government. The Southerner believes in law
and order, in progress within the framework of a lawful society, the only way
America can achieve meaningful progress.
Now, what has happened to law and order in this country in the last seven
years?
You know and I know that we have what can only be called a law enforcement
crisis in our Nation today.
Over the last seven years we have seen a virtual breakdown in law and order
take place in this great land of ours--the development of a general attitude of
lawlessness which has confounded and confused and frightened the American people.
I am not going to stand here and say the problem is simple and here is how
we solve it. But I will tell you--and I believe it with every fiber of my being--
that new Republican Leadership will solve it.
How did we get this way, anyway? What has happened to this country? You
hear Americans asking those questions all the time.
I think the answers add up to an invitation to violence on the part of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration--the fostering of an atmosphere of permissiveness,
uncalled-for restrictions on the investigatory powers of the police, a tipping of
the scales of justice against society and in favor of the criminal, and failure of
the Federal Government to mount an effective attack against the kings of organized
crime.
These and other factors have pushed up the national crime rate by 88 per cent
since 1960--nearly nine times faster than our population has grown.
The sharpest rise in crime has occurred in our large urban centers--and I
don't think it is without significance that most of them are run by Democratic
Party bosses.
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Organized crime, which the Federal Government has almost sole responsibility
for fighting, keeps rolling on as a multi-billion-dollar operation while Attorney
General Ramsey Clark admits that "more of their guys are being hurt in auto
accidents than by the government."
This is the same attorney general who says crime has gone up a little bit in
this country but we have no crime wave. He says this despite the fact that at the
present rate of increase, major crime could double in the United States in the next
five years. He made that statement despite the fact that, on the average, a major
crime is committed every 10 seconds in this country -- about the length of time it
took me to speak this sentence.
Then there is mass crime--otherwise known as riots.
During 1967 riots broke out in 29 states. Eighty-four people were killed,
and total financial loss was estimated at nearly $665 million. This year, during
the week of April 4-11, the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. touched off riots
in 125 cities in 29 states and the Nation's capital for a total of 39 deaths and
estimated property damage of $67 million. I don't have to tell you that Richmond
and Suffolk in Virginia were among the 125 cities hit.
I firmly believe the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has been soft on crime
and has invited civil disorder by letting arsonists and looters think they can get
away with it and by sanctioning civil disobedience as a weapon of social action.
This despite the fact that punishment clearly acts as a deterrent to crime and that
experience points to a complete breakdown of law and order when civil disobedience
is encouraged.
The American people are aware that it is the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's
approach to law and order which has caused it to disintegrate--the approach that
encourages the notion that something can be had for nothing and that an individual
is not responsible for his actions.
Just as the Johnson-Humphrey Administration is guilty of irresponsibility in
handling this Nation's fiscal affairs, so the Administration stands guilty of
encouraging individual irresponsibility in America--the idea that society is to
blame, not the law-breaker.
The Administration would have the American people believe that crime is
largely the product of poverty. Yet there was much less crime during the Depression
of the 1930's than there is now.
This is the soft line on criminals. This is the soft-headed attitude which
promotes crime instead of stamping it out.
We are now moving ahead in the fight against crime--not because of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration but in spite of it.
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We are going to make real progress against crime because of crime fighters
like Dick Poff, because the Republican Party is leading this fight and is going into
the fray with a record of achievement.
The Congress recently enacted a National Law Enforcement Assistance and
Criminal Justice Act.
That Act gives the American people the tools to fight crime at the federal,
state and local levels--tools the Republican Party fought to place in the hands of
the people over the protests of the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
I am talking about federal grants to the states to carry out a coordinated
war against crime; reversal of Supreme Court rulings on confessions in criminal
cases; outlawing of private snooping but legalizing of electronic surveillance by
law enforcement officials under court order and court supervision in investigation
of major crimes and espionage; granting of immunity from prosecution to witnesses
in organized crime cases so as to get at "the big boys;" creation of a Criminal
Justice Institute to provide meaningful research into the causes of crime and how
best to combat it.
Republicans know that fair and effective administration of criminal justice
demands a balancing of the rights of society with those of the individual. Any
serious imbalance can destroy liberty and order.
Republicans know that crime does not stop at the city line and that the states
must come on strong if law enforcement is to work for the benefit of all our citizens.
The Johnson-Humphrey Administration insisted that federal grants to assist
in local law enforcement should go directly to the cities--a move that would have
obstructed statewide coordination and would have made city police departments all
over the country beggar boys in Washington. It would, in effect, have created the
danger of a federalization of local law enforcement.
Lyndon Johnson recently signed the National Law Enforcement Assistance and
Criminal Justice Act of 1968--reluctantly. At the time he made a most shocking
statement. He said the Johnson-Humphrey Administration will not use the wiretapping
authority granted it by the Congress as a weapon against organized crime, the
Mafia that preys upon society.
The Congress, in effect, said we want you to go after the Mafia and here's
a valuable tool to help you. But the Johnson-Humphrey Administration says "no,"
although the President's own Crime Commission endorsed wiretapping for use against
organized crime. A friend of mine says this amounts to giving aid and comfort to
the crime syndicates.
Whether it is organized crime or individual crime or the mass crime called
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riots, the Johnson-Humphrey Administration has failed to act with the urgency and
the firmness needed to cope with it.
Under the present Administration, the Nation's capital has become a jungle,
a city where small businessmen are afraid to operate, a city terrorized by hoodlums
and armed hooligans, a city of fear where mob rule is fended off with tear gas, a
garrison city with national guardsmen and federal troops constantly poised to quell
civil disorder. The community which should be a model for the Nation has become a
city under siege during the Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
Suddenly Hubert Humphrey has become a sterling advocate of law and order.
But no amount of fresh words from that voluble individual will ever erase his
invitation to civil disorder, issued when he told the National Association of
Counties in September 1966 that if he had to live under slum conditions he could
"lead a mighty good revolt," himself. The fact that he deplored violence in the
same speech did not take the curse off the ticket to trouble he had handed out
earlier.
This is an example of how the Johnson-Humphrey Administration invited the
mob terror we have been experiencing in this country. I say there is no excuse for
slums but neither is there any excuse for riots.
Law-abiding Americans--people who respect the law and believe change should
come through peaceful means--are wondering what is happening and what can be done to
halt the destruction and disorder.
The answer is new national leadership--Republican leadership. And I can
tell you that Americans who go charging off into the ballot-boondocks with George
Wallace won't be helping themselves or anyone else. They'll be throwing their vote
away and endangering the chance for a really meaningful change in leadership in
this country.
I believe the American people are going to vote for meaningful change in
November, for Republican leadership, for New Direction for this Nation. They are
going to insist on law and order. They are going to seek progress within the
framework of a lawful society. They are going to vote for a sound America, a
better America, an America of which we can all be proud. Thank you.
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